The Lost Kitten
by bekkers29
Summary: World of Darkness/Beauty & the Beast x-over. Vincent is alone in the world, or is he? Can two shifters passing through NY show him who he really is and where he belongs? Takes place during 2nd season ep The Watcher.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neither Beauty and the Beast or the World of Darkness belong to me. I write this for my own amusement, and hopefully for yours. I've been wanting to write this ever since I read the description of a Sokto in the Bastet sourcebook and said, 'Oh, Vincent.' This story is in the same 'verse as American Invasion.

* * *

"So, we almost there?" asked an impatient voice.

"Are we there yet, are we there yet? What are you, nine?" was the amused, though mildly annoyed, reply.

Venus folded her arms across her chest, and huffed, "Technically." She was getting bored, and when she was bored considerably bloody things tended to happen. At least they were chasing down a murderous scumbag. So bloody things _would_ happen_** IF THEY EVER FREAKIN' GOT THERE!!**_

Ami Chan turned to look at her at the next red light. "All I ask is that you stay calm until we find him. This is a _rental _car."

The car started moving again. Venus just sat, brooding, with her arms folded and jaw set, wishing the stupid traffic would move faster. Then they could find their target faster, and he could be dead faster… That way everyone could be happy, well, except the dead guy, she supposed.

"Ami, do you think the victims will be at peace once he's dead?" She knew she'd already asked about ten times, but that apparition they'd seen had been so heartbreaking; she just needed to be repeatedly reassured.

Ami shook her head, but patiently repeated her explanation. "As I said, I don't really know that much about ghosts, per se, but Lucas does, and he told me that taking out the murderer should take care of their unfinished business, which would allow the spirits of the victims to find their rest."

A few minutes passed silently, but Venus started at Ami's harsh intake of breath. "What is it?"

"We're close. I can feel it. I'm sensing that he's almost straight up," Ami said, pointing to a building across the street. Turning onto the next street, she prayed that there would be a parking spot. By some miracle, a car pulled out just in front of them and Ami slid the car into the space.

Venus grabbed her duffel, and was out of the car and marching toward the apartment building before the engine was even off.

As she jogged toward Venus, Ami wished, not for the first time, that she was just a few inches taller. Venus might well be the student in their relationship, but Ami was the one that always had to run to keep up.

"Just point me at him and stand back," Venus growled.

"Just don't leave any forensic evidence behind for me to cover up. That's all I ask," Ami replied as they entered their prey's apartment building.

Seeing that the halls were empty, they casually made their way toward the stairs.

"You know," Venus commented as they climbed stairs, "It's really not that hard to kill a man without making him bleed. Isn't it the blood that's the forensic nightmare?"

"I really wish you wouldn't talk so casually about killing a human being, Venus," Ami replied, sounding almost, but not quite, resigned.

"Hey, I'm insulted. It's not like I'm bein' casual about the deaths of innocents here. A monster's a monster, whether it's human, fomori, bane, Spiral, or whatever."

"I realize that, but I will keep reminding you that casual talk about the taking of a life, _any _life, is a bad habit to get into, even for a Garou."

"Oh, how would you know, cat-girl? Just being friends with my mom doesn't make you an expert," Venus snapped.

Ami sighed. She'd thought they'd gotten past that – her being close to Jenny, Venus' mother. She understood that it made the girl feel supervised, but she'd hoped that Venus would accept her as a friend and stop seeing her as the 'grown-up'.

It was understandable, though. Regardless of the fact that she appeared to be seventeen, Venus had only been alive for nine years, and five of those had been spent in near isolation.

Ami had only known Jenny since she was twenty-three and Jenny was twenty-one, when Venus was nearly five years old. The girl had learned to control the change soon after, and had been equal parts terrified and excited to see the world she'd previously only glimpsed through windows. It was a terribly painful thing to be born metis, and not only because their natural form was Crinos, the monstrous, Rage-driven war-form, though Ami was sure it had to be hell for a child to be more or less stuck in that shape until she could learn to shift and retain her other forms.

For most, from what she understood from her study of Garou society, the worst part of being metis was simple – Garou, by and large, despised them, simply because they existed, for that existence proved that their parents disobeyed the most sacred of all Garou laws, the Litany. For one of its basic tenets stated that 'Garou Shall Not Mate with Garou'. For whatever reason, and it was true of almost all changing breeds, if two Garou, or Bastet, or Nuwisha, etc. were to mate with each other, such a union would produce a sterile, deformed offspring, known among shifters simply as metis. Not all shifters had laws against mating with their own kind. Ami's people, the Bastet, had never cared, though it was generally believed to be cruel to inflict such a life upon a child. Of course, a Bastet was also likely to remind you that contraceptives solved that problem nicely.

In the old days, Garou usually killed their metis at birth, and often the parents as well. But, as the Apocalypse began to draw near, and the numbers of the Garou dwindled, the desperate need for more warriors to combat the Wyrm finally served to stop such barbarism. But although they stopped slaughtering innocent infants, most Garou did not stop hating them. The Garou look upon metis as having the stamp of Gaia's disapproval upon their very bodies.

Trust the Garou to look at simple genetics and see the disapproval of their Goddess. Overly superstitious idiots, most of them, in Ami's opinion. The Glass Walkers were the only Garou she knew of who looked upon scientific study with anything other than disgust or outright disbelief. She'd met Jenny, after all, in the social science department at UCLA. She'd been doing some tutoring as part of her graduate work, and Jenny had come to her for help in an anthropology course. They'd each recognized the scent of another shifter almost immediately.

Ami's thoughts of the past were interrupted as her sense of their prey's direction began to shift. "We're getting close. What floor are we up to?"

"We're almost up to thirty. There's only a few more. Is it this one?"

"No, but I think it's the next one. We're really going to have to keep this quiet. We won't be able to make a quick escape," Ami said, hoping that the reminder was unnecessary.

"Don't worry about it. He won't even know what hit him." Though she was certain that a quick death was more than the bastard deserved, she knew it was a small price to pay to ensure the safety of the innocents in the building. Ami's constant yammering about respect for life usually irritated her, but Venus knew that Ami's heart was in the right place, and that she probably even had a point.

"And remember to give me time to scan the spirit realm before you strike. A bane of some sort could be whispering to or even possessing this guy. And, if he _is _possessed, you'll need to knock him unconscious so we can take the spirit out first; otherwise it could escape."

"God, I hope he's possessed. That sounds like _much_ more satisfying violence," Venus drawled, a broad smile on her face. She chuckled, and then began to whistle a disturbingly jaunty tune.

At the thirty-first stairwell door, Venus paused. "Just a reminder, Ami, please tell me if the building even _exists _in the Umbra this time. You know that time I shifted over and fell twelve stories? It _hurt_."

"Such a whiner," Ami quipped. "Thought you were a tough girl. I'll let you know, just let me track him to his apartment first."

Venus nodded and opened the door wide enough to look in both directions. "Coast is clear," she mumbled and stepped into the hall. "Which way?"

"Left," Ami breathed as she took point.

As they came to the fourth apartment, Ami slowed. Just a few steps from the door she said, "This is it," and then she narrowed her eyes a bit. "And no problems, the building does exist on the other side."

Venus set down her duffel and slipped out of her duster, revealing their secret weapon. After all, the girl wasn't given 'Venus' as her Garou name for nothing. Ami had yet to see the heterosexual male that could resist five feet, eleven inches of curvaceous, sun-bronzed, blue-eyed, scantily clad goddess. Turning to Ami, she asked, "Is my hair on straight? And are you sure I should be blonde? I look like my _mom_, well, if my mom looked like a music video slut. And eww to _that_ imagery."

Ami grinned, "The wig's fine. And _you_ may not like the hair color, but _he_ will – all his victims have been blondes. Now go knock him dead, pun intended."

Venus popped her neck and rolled her shoulders. And after hopping up and down a couple of times, she adopted a rather vapid expression and knocked.

"Hi there," Venus said to the very creepy man who opened the door. Turning Valley Girl ditz on high, and swearing to hate herself for it later, she plunged ahead. "I just moved into the building, and I'm, like, having trouble with the, uh, temperature…thing."

She began to run her fingers slowly up and down the door frame, and her voice gained a sultry undertone. "Would it be okay if I came in? Maybe you could show me how to turn my heat up."

The guy emitted a sort of strangled grunt, stepped back from the door, and Venus entered. Just as the door was closing, Ami's voice sounded from outside. "Psychomachiae."

Before the dude could so much as blink, Venus cold-cocked him. "Ooo, knockout," she said gleefully as he collapsed, opening the door to let Ami inside.

"Venus," she began warily. "It's big, too big. I think we need backup."

"Alright, but even if we knew someone in town, which we don't, it could figure out what we're doing before help arrived and just leave and possess someone else. Bottom line, we wait, it kills more people. The victims still won't be able to rest."

And there was that ridiculous Garou nobility. "Yes, but if we do this now _we _could be signing up to become its next victims."

But Venus just laughed, her nose crinkling in glee. "You know, I've noticed that you only like fights you know you're gonna win. That's so boring. Anyway, you worry too much – you're gonna go gray. I mean, really. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"This is hardly my sort of adventure," Amy replied dryly, longing for her field work days. Walking in the dirt, sun burnt, natural beauty as far as the eye could see, that was an adventure. Learning a new language, new customs, _that _was an adventure. But Venus, who found anthropology desperately boring, could not begin to understand that.

Ami watched dispassionately as Venus unzipped the duffel bag. First, she laid out a two by six foot sheet of plastic, then toed off her stilettos and traded her short skirt for motorcycle leathers and pulled her leather duster back on. Leaning back over the duffel, she brushed her hair out of her face, and almost as an afterthought, yanked off the wig, exposing her bald head. Then she pulled out her shotgun and loaded it, then shoved a couple of extra cartridges in her pocket. Lastly, she withdrew two beautifully etched weapons, an axe for herself and a katana which she handed to Ami. "Ready to party?"

"As I'll ever be. See you on the other side." Ami held out a mirror. Each woman gazed into its depths and promptly disappeared.

Not five minutes later, two figures reappeared on the plastic sheet: Venus covered in blood and barely standing along with a rather large cat, well, leopard, also covered in blood and gashes. Ami, for she was the cat, swiped her tongue across the worst of her own injuries, healing them quickly. After that, she turned her attention to Venus, who was trying with little success to stifle whimpers of pain, and tried to stop her life from flashing before her eyes. For a few terrifying moments, she'd been sure it was all over, certain the beast had severed Venus' spinal cord.

_The monster was enormous, maybe twenty feet long and six feet high, a serpentine, skeletal creature with a twisted, psychotic, humanlike face. Each of its limbs ended in razor-sharp claws, and it was covered in spiky protrusions, some like daggers, some razorblades, others curved and jagged, each a different weapon, Ami feared, that had been used by the creature's various puppets to torture and kill._

_Even so, the fight began normally enough. Venus whistled under her breath and shifted forms. In the blink of an eye, the tall, lithe human girl was replaced by a nine and a half foot tall, hairless, massive bipedal wolf wearing, incidentally, the exact same clothing, for it had grown with her. With a fierce howl, she raised the shotgun and began to fire into the creature, giving Ami time to prepare._

_Ami used the few precious moments given her to focus on her chi, channeling her energy to boost her physical prowess. That accomplished, she shifted to her own Crinos form, that of a bipedal leopard just shy of nine feet tall. She opened her mouth in a piercing yowl and charged into the fray, just as Venus dropped the shotgun, saving the rest of her ammo for later…in case, at some point, she needed to lay down cover fire._

Ami was startled out of mentally replaying the fight when two fingers began to tap a rather annoying rhythm on her nose. She growled a moment, and shifted back to her natural form. "Yes, what is it?"

Venus was staring intently at the unconscious man. "Dude, I think he's dead."

Raising an eyebrow, Ami quickly peeled off her ruined clothing and tossed them in the 'soiled' compartment of the duffel and pulled on a new shirt and trousers as well as a pair of latex gloves and knelt to examine the, yep, dead body. "Huh."

"You saw, I just knocked him out," Venus said defensively, absently chewing on a nail. "Ya think maybe that thing was so attached to him that killing it killed him too? That'd look like a natural, if _weird_ death, right? And, dammit…lost another perfectly good coat to the Wyrm!" she complained as she began to peel off her own ruined clothing.

"Yes, well, without _it _absorbing some of those blows, you'd be dead now, so…perspective? Anyway, I can't judge cause of death just by looking, but my guess is that the shock of being separated from that thing stopped his heart. That or there just wasn't enough of _him _left to survive without the bane. I suppose it doesn't really matter, though. Just give me a moment to check the bruising from that punch."

While Ami was examining the body, Venus used wet wipes to clean up a bit and finished changing her clothing. "Dammit," she muttered as she slipped into a light jacket. "That thing did a number on my back. Still hurts."

Ami shut her eyes tightly. She had seen that wound clearly before she'd healed it. _Bone_ had been visible. "I know. You _did _almost die, you know. I think you've gotten your first Battle Scar."

"Oh well, there goes bikini season. Thoughtful of it, I say, not to have aimed for the face," Venus said in what was probably intended to be a light tone, but fell a bit short of the mark.

It was, Ami thought, not that Venus was vain about her looks; it was really that she believed they were all she really had going for her. And it was generally known that Metis had somewhat heightened sex drives, which seemed a cruel irony as they were sterile. That drive, coupled with Venus' self-esteem issues…well, that had been why Jenny had begged Ami to mentor her daughter. She was afraid that, in Garou society, Venus would, at best, never grow to accept and love herself, and would be lost, living up or _down_ to whatever her pack's expectations were. And at worst, Jenny feared her daughter might become some sort of communal plaything. Ami agreed on all counts, but was having something of a difficult time getting past the smart-aleck teenage exterior to the damaged kid within.

"It doesn't look bad," Ami finally said. "It shouldn't factor into COD at all. This is New York City, after all. People get hit."

"Cool, I already got rid of my prints on the doorknob, so we're good?"

"We are." Ami stood and made use of some wipes herself, cleaning her face, throat and hands, then folded up the plastic sheeting they'd been standing on and put it back into the duffel. "Think it's too much to hope that he'd have incriminating evidence in here somewhere? For that matter," she muttered, "I wonder if he'd chosen a new victim yet."

Venus, in the meantime, was walking around the apartment with her hands in her pockets. It was usually the only way she remembered not to touch things. "Ooo," she sing-songed as she spied the telescope in his bedroom, pointed not at the sky but toward another building. "I get the impression that he was at least shopping for one."

A moment later she gasped quite loudly. "Ami? Why would a Bastet be in Sokto form out on a balcony where any freak with a telescope could get an eyeful?"

"What?" Ami exclaimed, rushing toward Venus. "Let me see."

Sure enough, there was a Bastet, Simba tribe by the look of him, standing on a balcony, talking to a woman. There were lit candles everywhere. The entire scene, with the exception of the man's bizarre choice to hang about in Sokto form, was quite romantic.

As Ami studied the scene, Venus decided to throw in her two cents worth. "She didn't really look it to me, but maybe his chick's a real perv and prefers him in that form. Or hey, maybe he ain't so well hung in homid, or ooo, I knew this one guy, Garou I mean, who tended to accidentally shift to Glabro when he was horny. D'you know if that could happen to a Bastet? Or…"

"You know," Ami cut in, "I think it might just be possible that, if you tried slightly harder, you could be a bit more crude. But you _are_ right, he shouldn't be out in the open in anything but homid form…and you want to stroll over there and check this out right _now_, don't you?"

"Yeah," she said defensively. "Why, you got some pressing plans?"

Ami sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose. "Do you mind if we check into our hotel first? I'd like to drop off our stuff and catch a shower. I would _really_ rather not show up on that woman's doorstep smelling as though I've been bathing in blood."

"Yeah, good point," Venus relented, rubbing a hand over her scalp. "I wouldn't say no to a shower myself."

"Well, thank Seline for small mercies. Grab the duffel and we'll get out of here."

* * *

A half hour later, Ami stood with her arms braced on the shower wall, near-scalding water sluicing over tired muscles. With all her might, she willed it to soothe he mind as well.

But it was useless. Each time she closed her eyes, she heard Venus' agonized scream; instead of water, felt Venus' blood as it had sprayed her face and chest as she lay on the ground, bleeding profusely herself. Too close, too damned close; hell, for a few moments she'd been sure that Venus was dead, that she'd broken her promise to Jenny – getting Venus killed was rather the opposite of protecting her after all. But then, as if by force of will, Venus had begun to rise, snaring the shotgun on the way up. A dozen shells later, the Psychomachiae was dead and Venus had said, "See, piece of cake." Then she'd begun to sway and muttered, "Ow." With that, they'd limped/crawled back to where the plastic was laid out and shifted back over.

Venus' back really had been a terrible sight; Ami couldn't bear to tell her how much worse than a few deep scars it could have been. When the tears came, she didn't even fight them.

* * *

A loud pounding on the bathroom door startled her back into reality. The water wasn't cold, but then it rarely went cold in a good hotel, meaning that she'd no idea how much time had passed.

"Hey! You tryin' to turn all pruney or what? Come on, let's plow!"

Ami obligingly shut off the water and began to towel off, ignoring the whining Venus was doing about having to wait for her. The girl was still going when Ami finally emerged wrapped in a scratchy towel.

"Just imagine if we didn't have connecting rooms. How much longer would it have taken if I could only pound on your door? You might never have heard me in the bathroom. I'd have had to break in, we'd have been thrown out…"

"Oh don't you ever shut up?" Ami asked irritably as she unzipped her suitcase and grabbed some fresh clothes.

Venus just laughed. "But you move so much faster when I'm driving you crazy."

"Fine, fine," Ami mumbled, throwing on her clothes and giving her hair a cursory once-over in the mirror. Short as it was, it rarely did anything stupid as it dried, but she massaged a bit of mousse into it anyway. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go do something stupid."

"Whatcha mean by that?"

"Just, you know, that the Simba fashion themselves our leaders. So, lecturing him might be a nice was to get our asses kicked. And almost all Bastet hate the Garou on general principle and wish you were all dead."

"Oh, is that all? Been thinking about this for a while then?"

"No, actually. Didn't have to think about it, I just know it. And I wanted to give you the opportunity to back out. I can do this by myself."

"You're kidding! Let you have all the fun? Look, if you're worried, I can just be distraction girl. I can knock on the door and distract the chick while you do your disappearing act thing. It didn't look like there was too much light in there. Isn't that what you need to do that Night…_something_…thing?"

"Alright, alright, I can't disagree with your reasoning. And it's called Night's Passage. Just remember, this is a _woman _you'll be distracting. Your usual methods won't work."

Venus looked insulted. "Humph," she huffed, "I refuse to rise to the bait." She slung her purse over her shoulder, flipped her hair, now a shoulder-length strawberry blonde bob, and headed out.

Grinning, Ami grabbed her own handbag and followed Venus out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Catherine couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so peaceful. She stood, staring at the night sky, with strong arms wrapped around her. She'd worried that their evening would be interrupted by another of the prank calls she'd been getting for the past few days, but the phone hadn't rung all evening.

The candles were burning low; soon she'd suggest to Vincent that they go inside. From there, she'd…probably be a coward again. She'd wanted, for some time, to take the next step in their relationship, but Vincent was just so hesitant to accept any advances. Whether it was because he feared he would injure her, or because he was worried about what it would do to her life above if their relationship became physical, she did not know. But after two years of tension and frustration, she no longer _cared_. She was in the relationship too, and it was long past time she made a few demands – among them that he stop treating her as though she were made of glass.

Still, even if things between them never changed, never evolved into something more, no force on this earth could ever drag her from his side. After all, she might not have everything, but what she had was enough.

As she drew breath to ask if he wanted to come inside, there was a knock on the door. "Don't go?" Catherine asked as she extricated herself from his arms.

Vincent nodded, murmuring that he'd douse the candles and stay out of sight.

Looking through the peephole, Catherine was relieved to see a young woman at the door. And although she was relieved that it wasn't work-related, she was somewhat confused by the girl's presence. What was this girl, a model if Catherine were to hazard a guess, doing knocking on her door?

"Hi," the girl said. "I'm really sorry to bother you, but I was supposed to meet up with a friend that lives on this floor, and he's not home. I don't really know the area, so I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of a coffee shop or a café where I could wait. Oh, and could I maybe have a piece of paper so I could slip a note under my friend's door?"

"Certainly. There's a good coffee shop about two blocks up the street, actually, called Anton's. Let me get you some paper. Do you need to borrow a pen?"

"No,' she smiled. "_That_ I have, thank you."

As Catherine fetched the paper, she thought she felt something brush against her, but when she looked, nothing was there. The balcony door _had_ come open, though, so she brushed the feeling off as wind and returned to the door.

The girl thanked her for her time and help and left with a big smile. Just as Catherine shut the door, she was startled to hear a low growl coming from the balcony, and she ran to investigate. At the door, she was again startled, this time by the sound of a woman's voice.

"…God's sake, I can't be _that_ threatening, can I?" asked the woman. She sounded both afraid and annoyed. It was an odd combination.

Catherine edged forward. There was a black-clad woman, about her own height, standing across from Vincent with her arms raised in supplication, or perhaps to show that she was unarmed.

"My name is Ami Chan. I apologize for entering your territory without permission, but I felt it necessary to advise you that you should really be in homid form out here. There was a serial killer with a telescope in that building over there. My partner and I took care of the situation, but still…why do you look so confused? You'd think I was speaking Chinese. I wasn't, was I? I don't usually slip into Chinese unless I'm very upset."

"Serial killer?" Catherine asked.

At the same time, Vincent finally spoke. "Homid form? What does that mean?"

"Oh come on. _Homid _form," Ami replied, gesturing toward herself. "As opposed to…"

Before their eyes, the woman between them began to change. She grew both taller and broader, and a light dusting of tawny hair with splotches of black began to sprout from her arms, neck, and face – everywhere that skin was visible. And her hair began to lighten – it didn't match the…fur on her body, but it was closer to that color than it was to the black it had been moments before. And at the tips of her fingers, small pointed claws were visible. Catherine gasped aloud when it really hit her that this woman now looked like a female version of Vincent, albeit smaller and with spots.

"As I was saying," Ami spoke, her voice now slightly gravelly, "As opposed to Sokto form." She gestured to Vincent and again to herself. Then, in the blink of an eye, the woman looked human once more.

"How," Vincent began, but then paused, looking both amazed and confused. "How did you do that? What are you?"

It was now Ami's turn to look confused. "Well, I'm Bastet, like you, though Bagheera tribe rather than Simba. What to you mean? How did I do _what_? Wait." She narrowed, then unfocused her eyes, cocked her head to the side, and took a couple of deep breaths, her nose twitching in an oddly cat-like manner.

"Magic," Ami breathed, her eyes widening. "Are you _stuck_ like that? No, it's even worse than that! You really don't know you should be able to change forms, do you?"

"Magic?" Vincent replied, relaxing his stance a fraction. "I have looked like this since birth. Do you suggest I should be capable of changing, such as you have? How can this be?"

"Hell if I know," Ami said, then shut her eyes and massaged the space between her eyes for a moment. "Lord, I've spent too much time among teenagers lately. It's doing a number on my vocabulary. Sorry, I don't suppose you know any Dark Wizards who might have a grudge against you or your family?"

Vincent thought for a moment, and then replied, "I suppose Paracelsus is the closest…" He trailed off when Ami gasped and her eyes widened in horror. "What is it?"

"_Paracelsus_. I know that name. I've a few friends in the Wizarding community – one told me to watch out for Paracelsus when I said I'd be in New York. But what about your parents? Oh no, I'd bet money it was one of your parents he had a grudge against. They're probably dead," she muttered the last few words to herself.

Catherine, for her part, had heard enough and could no longer hold her tongue. "Magic? You expect us to believe a wizard, what, cast a spell on Vincent? Do you think we're stupid?"

"Catherine, please," Vincent interrupted, softly but forcefully. "I know it sounds mad, but somehow it feels true. Please continue, Ami."

Ami turned fully to Catherine, an understanding smile on her face. "I appreciate your skepticism, I really do. I probably wouldn't believe it either if I were in your shoes. But can you really look at your friend Vincent or at me – I _did_ change in front of your eyes – but doubt the possibility that magic and curses could exist?"

"This curse you speak of, could it be broken?" Vincent asked, attempting to put the conversation back on track.

"Oh, of course," Ami assured them. "The only problem is that it's possible that the curse could only be broken by the wizard that cast it. Now Lucas, one of the friends I mentioned, is very good with curses. I could ask him to meet us somewhere; he should either be able to break it or tell you if the original caster would have to do it."

As Ami was speaking, there was another knock at the door, and Catherine excused herself. She was surprised, then suspicious to see the same girl from before.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry," the girl said at Catherine's suspicious look. "Can you tell Ami that my adrenalin's crashed, and I'm heading back to the hotel?"

"I heard you, Venus. You okay?" Ami asked, sounding concerned.

"Yeah, my back just hurts and I really want to get some sleep."

"Sure thing. We're actually about done for the night, though. I'll head back with you. I feel about ready to fall asleep on my feet myself."

To Vincent and Catherine, she said, "Think about what I said. Call me around four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Here's my number." She scribbled something on a business card and handed it over; on the back she had written a phone number and room number.

Once they left, Catherine turned toward Vincent. "You know, she never did explain about the serial killer she mentioned."


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning was not Venus' best ever. Ami insisted that since they'd taken care of the thing that had sidetracked them, they should get back to what they'd come to New York for – the stupid, boring, lame-ass museums. At least Ami wasn't going to make her go see anything on Broadway. Ami was planning to take in a few shows, but Venus was free to go clubbing in the evenings.

Still, for the time being, she was stuck looking at paintings that had all started to look alike after the first twenty minutes. But at least it was marginally better than the last museum – a bunch of archaeology junk that just bored her to tears. And the weird musty smell that hung about the place hadn't thrilled her either. At least the stupid Met smelled better. And Venus thought that Ami was currently trying to explain the significance of the piece they were looking at, but since she wasn't paying any attention, she couldn't be sure.

"Venus. Venus!" Ami hissed. "Are you listening at all?"

Venus sighed in annoyance and looked down at Ami. What the hell, she thought, why not just be honest. "No, I was trying to figure out what I did to piss you off so badly. I mean, as punishments go, this is pretty effective; I just wish I knew what I was being punished for so I can never, _ever _do it again."

"Oh come on. It's just until I meet Lucas for lunch. You've got the rest of the afternoon to yourself! Is it too much to ask you to expand your horizons for _one_ morning?"

"Dude," Venus replied, chuckling. She pointed to herself. "Garou, remember? Maybe cat people think it's important to learn to be snobby, but… Hey, _you're_ the anthropologist. How important do you think art appreciation is among _my _people? I mean, come on – if I make it to forty it'll be an amazing accomplishment. So what does your huge squishy brain tell you my priorities are for my free time?"

Ami sighed. "Are you telling me you want to go hang out with kids your own age?"

"Duh," she said, rolling her eyes, thinking that that was a decent enough euphemism for wanting to go get laid.

"Fine, go have fun," Ami acquiesced. "Just be back at the hotel by four o'clock if you still want to know how the thing with Vincent turns out."

"Cool. Wait, Lucas is going to be with you. Are you sure I shouldn't be discretely late?" Venus asked, a knowing smirk on her face.

Ami blushed. "Four o'clock will be just fine, thank you very much. Now scram, before I change my mind."

Venus grinned and all but ran from the museum.

* * *

At five minutes past four pm, Venus walked through the connecting door to find a decidedly rumpled man of about her height with messy wheat-colored hair and warm chocolate eyes. "Hey Lucas, you look," she paused and smirked, "relaxed."

Lucas grinned back and waggled his eyebrows. "Thanks. You look, well, _almost_ relaxed."

An obscene finger gesture was Venus' only response.

He trapped the offending digit between his palms. "And I am profoundly sorry, but I'm a one shapeshifter sort of guy." The twinkle in his eyes belied his earnest tone.

Venus rolled her eyes and pushed past him just as Ami hung up the phone.

"We're on, gorgeous," Ami called over her shoulder.

"Cool, but shouldn't you tell Lucas too?" Venus asked innocently, but spoiled it with a toothy grin.

Ami just playfully bumped her shoulder. "Not even _you_ can ruin my mood today."

"That good, huh? I'm almost jealous. So, when do we head out? And where we goin'?"

"We're heading back to Catherine's apartment. Apparently, she and Vincent talked until late last night and he stayed there. They're ready and waiting for us, but I had to promise to explain about the psycho we took out."

"No way! It's storytelling, that's so _my_ stuff. Last time I checked, _I_ was still the Galliard," Venus declared.

"Fine, sorry. _You_ explain about the psycho," Ami acquiesced as she grabbed her purse and they headed out.

* * *

Though explanations were slightly complicated by Catherine's job as an assistant DA, as well as her lingering doubts about their world, Venus told Catherine and Vincent the whole story, from seeing the ghost in the place where she'd died to Ami's finding a couple of the killer's hairs directly beneath the translucent image,. Venus then described the rite Ami had performed to locate the rat bastard, and then finished up with their glorious battle against the Psychomachiae, though in far less gruesome detail than she'd have used had she been recounting the tale to other Garou.

As it was, Catherine was a bit green by the end of the story. Once her color returned to normal, Ami reminded Catherine of the telescope she'd mentioned the previous evening, and it all clicked into place, and she felt ill once more to think that the _harmless_ prank calls she'd been getting were actually messages from the serial killer.

Vincent had been enthralled by the tale of the battle, and was visibly relieved to learn that his strength was actually needed for the creatures that Ami and Venus fought. Though Vincent knew that all the men he'd killed had been evil, and needed to be stopped, the ease with which he'd dispatched them had always made him feel like a monster.

While Ami, Venus and Vincent spoke about the world he now found himself a part of, Lucas stood behind them muttering, his wand flicking, jabbing, and waving this way and that. Eventually he exhaled loudly and his arm dropped to his side.

When he realized that the room had gone silent and everyone was staring at him, he cleared his throat nervously. "It's, well, it's interesting. The spell is heavily modified; in its original form, it would transfigure something harmless, say, a gerbil, into a snarling beast, fiercely protective of its master, deadly to its master's foes. What he cast on _you_ was probably supposed to make you a more intelligent version of that basic idea, but my guess is that he did not know that you were Bastet. Quite possibly, he does not even know of the Bastet. So he probably thought, initially, that the spell had worked. He presumably still believes that it worked in part, though the fact that you do not do his bidding would be proof that it did not work properly. I _think _that your Bastet nature largely protected you from the spell. Your shift to Sokto, I believe, was largely instinctual. The spell's only real effect on you, aside from keeping you stuck in Sokto, is that it enhances certain things, namely your feelings of loyalty for your friends, and animosity for your enemies."

The room was quiet for a full minute as Vincent and Catherine absorbed the information.

"Can you reverse it?" Vincent finally asked.

"Oh, sure. I spent most of that time making certain I had the right counter-curse." Lucas held out a few strands of hair, "And apparently your hair's going to be light brown. Oh, and you'll need to be lying down when I break the curse."

Vincent nodded and rose from the couch. If he was slightly unsteady on his feet, no one mentioned it.

Catherine rose a moment later. "Do you want me to come with you?" she asked, her voice wavering only slightly.

Vincent raised his right hand slowly, stroking his love's face gently. "Catherine, I _do_ want you with me, but I believe it would be better if you waited here with Ami and Venus."

Catherine squeezed Vincent's hand and smiled at him. "It's alright Vincent. Do what you must."

He nodded once, pulled her to him in a loose embrace, and then strode into Catherine's bedroom. Lucas followed behind, carrying a smallish duffel bag.

Ami jabbed Venus in the ribs at her muttered comment of, "And hel-_looooo_ to the melodrama." In response, Venus stuck out her tongue and jammed a pair of headphones onto her head.

Catherine noticed none of it. "Ami, do you know what's in that bag?"

"What? Oh, Lucas brought Vincent a change of clothes. He'll be about six inches shorter in his homid form, approximately five foot nine, I'd say. And also, while I doubt he'll have a _slight_ form, he will certainly be slimmer and considerably less bulky. Now, when I change forms, my clothes change with me. Basically, I perform a rite every morning that essentially makes my clothing a part of me. I can teach it to Vincent, but he'll have to start with clothes that fit him in homid.

Catherine nodded, wringing her hands nervously. "I can still hardly believe this is happening. I am certainly glad I'm here to witness it; I don't know if I'd believe it was still him otherwise. Do you have any idea what he'll look like?"

"Well, as he has blue eyes and light brown hair, we can assume he's white, which is not unheard of, but somewhat unusual for Simba tribe. At any rate, his eyes won't change. They _should_, actually; in Sokto, his pupils should be slits like cat's eyes. The round pupils could be a side effect of the spell, I suppose."

Ami seemed to contemplate that for a few moments before she spoke again. "Aside from that, I'd wager he'll have good cheekbones. I won't be surprised, in fact, if he's quite attractive, as he's not bad looking in Sokto. Other than that, I really couldn't say, but I expect we'll find out in a few moments."

Catherine and Ami watched what little they could from their vantage point as Lucas' wand split the air in an intricate dance, which was accompanied only by his incomprehensible muttering. Catherine gasped as Vincent began to shrink before her eyes. Until that moment, she realized, she hadn't truly believed it was work, and she was grateful for the steadying arm that Ami put around her shoulders.

Lucas pocketed his wand and turned and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him. "Give him a minute to change."

Catherine glanced in Venus' direction, then, and smiled at the sight of the girl wearing headphones and alternating between filing her nails and playing air guitar. Well, Catherine thought, Bastet, Garou, whatever, it was sort of reassuring to see that a teenager was still _just_ a teenager. She looked back at Ami, who was watching Venus with a long-suffering, but affectionate gaze.

"She was insistent, you know," Ami whispered. "She wanted to be included; couldn't wait to see how this turned out. Speaking of which," she continued aloud, "I'm sure enough time has passed. I'll have a few things to speak with Vincent about later, but for now, why don't the three of us get out of your hair? We'll be at the hotel for another six days. Give us a call when the two of you are ready to allow the outside world back in."

Catherine blushed at the implication, but simply nodded. "We'll call. And thank you. Thank you _so _much for what you've done for us," she said earnestly.

Ami's smile was warm as she pulled Catherine into a hug. "Just love each other, Cathy. That's all the thanks we need."

Lucas grinned and took Ami's hand. "You betcha. We're always happy to help a couple of crazy kids in love."

Meanwhile, Venus was muttering in the background as she got her stuff together. "Waited all this time. Don't even get to see if the dude's hot." She finally noticed the adults were watching her and pulled off her headphones. "What?"

At Ami's look, she adopted a rather forced-sounding polite tone. "It was lovely to meet you, Cathy." In her usual voice, she added, "Try not to doing anything that ain't at least R-rated for the next forty-eight hours." Venus winked then and turned to leave, a bounce in her step.

Ami rolled her eyes, but followed Venus out, Lucas in tow.

As the door clicked shut behind them, Catherine finally opened the bedroom door.

He was bent over, staring into her vanity, his hands raised to the face she could not yet see. His hair, though, was now indeed a light brown, only a few shades darker than her own hair, and while shorter than it had been, it still fell a few inches past his shoulders. And the borrowed clothing fit tightly enough to reveal a lean, nicely muscled form.

Whether he heard her approach or saw her in the mirror, Vincent drew himself up to his full height, now only half a foot or so taller than she. He turned to face her, tears running down his new face.

Well, Catherine thought, 'extremely attractive' hardly did him justice. The same piercing blue eyes, cheekbones that could cut glass, full lips, a strong jaw… She was torn between throwing herself into his arms and bursting into tears. In the end, she simply reached out a hand, tracing the line of his jaw, his nose (Greek, she thought they called his sort of nose), his eyebrows, and finally his lips.

Vincent was finally spurred into action when her fingers began tracing his mouth. He smiled and gently pried her hand away, turning it over to brush a kiss against her knuckles.

Catherine sighed softly in response. "It really is still you, isn't it?" she asked in wonder as a smile lit up her face. "Just think of all the possibilities that have opened up for you now."

"For us," Vincent replied, his voice less gravelly, but still unmistakably his. He took Catherine's face in his hands and rested his forehead against hers, his lips only inches from hers. "For us," he repeated, and closed the distance.

The End

A/N:

So begin the adventures of Ami and Venus. Like it? Hate it? Tell me. If you have ideas for interesting crossovers for the girls, I'd love to hear them. Since the 2nd season of Beauty and the Beast was in 1989, I'm trying to remember interesting genre shows from the 90s, and am just coming up Buffy, which I will _not_ cross this story over with. In this 'verse, Buffy _is_ a TV show.


End file.
